Conte hit out at players but Spurs' real problem is its owners - opinion
Press conferences in the world of sport are often a kind of modern theatre where journalists are often fed platitudes such as "I'll take it one game at a time", "we have great respect for the opponent", "we just have to go home and train hard", etc.
The importance of media training ranks among clubs and athletes today at the same level as tactical analyses and therefore the media today are integral to the athletes' mood, attitude and willingness to share their experiences.
But there are exceptions, however, when there is a liberating "opening of the bag", as was the case when Tottenham's Italian coach Antonio Conte was asked for his reaction to the disappointing 3-3 draw away to Southampton last weekend.
It kicked off one of the most astonishing press conferences since former Bayern Munich coach Giovanni Trappatoni's famous meltdown in broken German in March 1998. Pierre Emil Højbjerg and the rest of the Spurs squad were put through Conte's Italian "meat grinder" and blamed for their lackadaisical, embarrassing and arrogant attitude, which has put the north London club in a very difficult position to fulfil their ambitions of a top-four finish and Champions League qualification.
"I see selfish players. Players who don't want to help each other and who don't put their heart into this. There is no fire, no desire. When you're not a team, you can't improve.
"It's always the same here every season. No matter who the manager is. They haven't won anything for 20 years. If they want to continue like this, they can change the manager, many managers, but the situation cannot change. Believe me", said Antonio Conte.
After a season in which no fewer than 40 goals have caused the net to flutter behind Hugo Lloris and Fraser Forster, and with the fans fed up with Conte's uninspiring defensive anti-football - which actually contradicts the club's own slogan "to dare is to do" - the fans will be relatively pleased to see some sort of reaction.
The problem is that Conte's criticism is a complete miss in trying to identify the club's real problem. "No man is obliged beyond his ability" is a famous saying and it could easily be applied to the Tottenham squad. The attitude of the players has never ever been the problem at Tottenham, it has been the management, the owners and their lack of desire to improve the squad.
It is a naïve assumption that football clubs today do their utmost to ensure success on the pitch. This is not the case. Today, football clubs worldwide can be part of multinational corporations that have interests to look after in many other areas outside the world of sport.
So success on the pitch is not necessarily related to financial capability, but whether that capability is integrated into a business plan aimed at winning trophies. And that is not the case at Spurs if you look at the way the ENIC group and chairman Daniel Levy have managed the club since 2001, when ENIC, led by billionaire Joe Lewis, took a majority stake in the club.
In recent years Tottenham have been as infrequent visitors in front of goal as they have been in the transfer market. Over the past five years, Tottenham has consistently ranked around fourth to seventh in transfer market investment compared to other Premier League clubs, spending around 15-20 per cent of what clubs like Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea have invested in players.
Daniel Levy has earned a reputation as a tough negotiator who constantly pushes down the price, which has resulted in Tottenham missing out on transfers for players like Willian, Paulo Dybala, Jack Grealish and Joao Moutinho at critical times in the club's development phase.
The worst was back in the summer of 2018 when, on the eve of success in the Premier League and Champions League, Tottenham failed to bring any reinforcements to the club at all, while the level of ambition to compete with the very best remained the same. This has of course over the years created seriously deteriorated competitive conditions for the club's coaches, which was also reflected when Antonio Conte already last season said that "it was a pure miracle that the club had qualified for the Champions League" if you looked at what he had to work with.
In the cut-throat competition that exists in today's football market, it is naïve to think that it is possible to "win the Tour de France on an overturned petrol pump". ENIC has done many things right since taking over the club in 2001, when the club finished ninth. The administration of the club has been professionalised, the finances have been significantly improved, and the club now has a training facility and stadium of the highest calibre.
As it has been able to finish relatively consistently among the top four clubs in the league, the club's reputation has also changed from 'selling club' to 'buying club' and it has been able to attract better but also expensive players.
But despite the improvements, the fact is that ENIC, with a state-of-the-art new stadium behind it, is far more focused on increasing cooperation opportunities with the NFL and Formula 1 as well as planning concerts and boxing matches than on filling the new stadium with good footballers.
Tottenham have not won a trophy in 14 years and Spurs fans should not expect that unflattering statistic to improve with the business philosophy that ENIC has adopted in north London. "ENIC out", "Levy out" is unsurprisingly a message often seen on banners around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but instead of new owners, it is more likely to be "Conte out" and the Italian will be the next victim of ENIC's financial straitjacket that has left the club in a competitive stalemate.
